ITALIAN President Sergio Mattarella on Monday tasked Lower House Speaker Roberto Fico of the populist Five Star Movement with a so-called “exploratory mandate” to try to form a government with the center-left Democratic Party of outgoing Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

Italy has been in a political stall since an inconclusive March 4 election.

Mattarella, whose job is to name Italy’s next prime minister, gave Fico until tomorrow to “verify the possibility of an agreement on a parliamentary majority” between the Five Stars and the Democrats, presidential secretary-general Ugo Zampetti announced in televised comments.

“I will get to work right away,” Fico said after his meeting with Mattarella. “I believe we must begin with the issues and the program in the interests of the country.”

Fico has been a prominent member of the Five Star Movement since its inception in 2009. He is said to have leftist sympathies and has an “excellent relationship” with Democratic MPs, according to influential Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Born in Naples in 1974, he has a degree in communications and was elected to a second term in the Lower House earlier this month.

The March 4 election delivered two relative winners: a center-right bloc led by the right wing, anti-immigrant League, which also includes ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s moderate Forza Italia party with 37 percent of the vote; and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement with 32.5 percent. Voters also delivered a crushing defeat to the Democrats, who got 17 percent of the vote. (Xinhua)